Jack McCaffery is the lead sports columnist for the Daily Times and delcotimes.com. He has spent several decades covering everything from the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and Sixers, to college hoops, to high school sports in Delco.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

HAKSTOL: At age 50, Flyers have 'responsibility' to build upon tradition

Before the Flyers would entertain the Anaheim Ducks Thursday in the Wells Fargo Center, in the home opener of the 50th season, Dave Hakstol met with the press.

This was the conversation:

On 50th year,
particularly Ed Snider:

“I think he's a central
figure to everything our team does and I think his presence is always here and
always felt. I'm not sure exactly what's in store for the pregame ceremonies,
but I am looking forward to it. I think there's going to be a lot of emotion
that comes with it and is attached to it, and those are emotions that are
positive for our team.”

No championship for a long
time, but much success, Hall of Famers, good teams, more. Can that tradition
provide a benefit on the ice?

“You always build on your
history and your tradition. You have a responsibility to those who have come
before you, to those who have built this organization that have come before us.
We have a responsibility to them to not just respect that but to also build on
it.”

How would you characterize
that first road trip?

“I haven't looked for a way
to characterize it. We played a (heck) of a game in L.A. We found a way to get a
point on a tough back-to-back the next night. And it was a disappointing finish
to the road trip in Chicago. But there were a lot of real good spurts of
hockey. There was not a full, complete 60-minute hockey game really in any of
the three. So it's early in the year. But those are things that you have to
work on and build on.”

Was the comeback something
that can be built upon?

“That's a positive. I'm not
looking for positives. I know what the positives are. We didn't like getting
into a hole. Quite honestly, we played a pretty good first period in Chicago.
We played a pretty darn good first period, and all of a sudden, we were down,
three-nothing. We got through the second, didn't get a whole lot done. I am
impressed with our players, to go out and tie the game up. And like I said,
from there, we are disappointed to not come away, once we were back, to not get
some road points.